Fanlore:Featured Article Archives/2022: Week 29
Peter Parker/Wade Wilson, also known as Deadpool/Spider-Man or Spideypool, is the slash pairing of Wade Wilson (Deadpool) and Peter Parker (Spider-Man) in the Marvel fandom. Spideypool is a term that can also refer to their canonical team ups.
The pairing is popular within Marvel Comics fandom, where they are canonically friends and allies, but the pairing has also bled into film franchise fandoms like the MCU, The Amazing Spider-Man or the Deadpool movies, even though the two characters have never appeared on screen together.
Events in the late 2010s conspired to bring this pairing to wider attention and resulted in increased fanwork production. The very ship-friendly Spiderman/Deadpool comic series began in 2016, the same year Ryan Reynolds' R-rated Deadpool movie was released. Then a kiss between Spiderman and Deadpool actors at the 2017 Golden Globes resulted in media attention being drawn to the Spideypool fandom and its reaction.
This pairing has raised questions about the distinction between fan service and queerbaiting, as comics canon has played up the romantic elements of their relationship without ever making this ship canon. There has also been discourse in fandom about the appropriateness of shipping character iterations where the actors have large age differences.